Category: Antennas – Vertical

The unit on the left below is the medium power BMU (Base Matching Unit) intended for 42 foot to 48 foot vertical, sloper, or Inverted-L antennas. Naturally, these antennas (like all end-fed antennas) require a decent radial system for efficient operation on the lower bands.

The unit on the right below is the QRP BMU (Base Matching Unit) intended for 42 foot to 48 foot vertical, sloper, or Inverted-L antennas. Naturally, these antennas (like all end-fed antennas) require a decent radial system for efficient operation on the lower bands.

In this article we look at the reduction in feedline loss when we use a BMU to mitigate impedance extremes at the base feedpoint of a Vertical or Inverted-L antenna. Naturally, these antennas are worked against a proper counterpoise radial system for decent efficiency, especially on the low bands.

We look at the cases of a 42 ft antenna, and use an average of the measured and modeled feedpoint impedance to calculate feedline losses* for 50 ft of RG8x and for 100 ft LMR400.

The BMU referred to here is:

A 9:1 UNUN for the mid and high bandsA Loading Coil, switched in instead of the UNUN, for the low bands

With the interest in 43 foot untuned verticals, and some of the less than accurate claims being made, I thought I’d share the results of a 25 foot untuned vertical antenna I developed a few years ago. Hopefully, I can shed some more light on its practical use, as well as show how to gain a bit more performance.